The would-be disciple had, like any novice, to be educated, and the
Bab, in his first two interviews with the Sayyid, was content to
observe how far this process had gone.

It was in the third interview that the two souls really met. The
Sayyid had by this time found courage to put deep theological
questions, and received correspondingly deep answers. The Bab then
wrote on the spot a commentary on the 108th Sura of the Kur'an.
[Footnote: Nicolas, p. 233.] In this commentary what was the Sayyid's
surprise to find an explanation which he had supposed to be his own
original property! He now submitted entirely to the power of
attraction and influence [Footnote: _NH_, p. 115.] exercised so
constantly, when He willed, by the Master. He took the Bab for his
glorious model, and obtained the martyr's crown in the second Niriz
war.


MULLA MUHAMMAD 'ALI OF ZANJAN

He was a native of Mazandaran, and a disciple of a celebrated teacher
at the holy city of Karbala, decorated with the title Sharifu-'l Ulama
('noblest of the Ulama'). He became a _mujtah[i]d_ ('an authority on
hard religious questions') at Zanjan, the capital of the small
province of Khamsa, which lay between Irak and Azarbaijan. Muslim
writers affirm that in his functions of _mujtahad_ he displayed a
restless and intolerant spirit, [Footnote: Gobineau; Nicolas.] and he
himself confesses to having been 'proud and masterful.' We can,
however, partly excuse one who had no congeniality with the narrow
Shi'ite system prevalent in Persia. It is clear, too, that his
teaching (which was that of the sect of the Akhbaris), [Footnote: